PostgreSQL: Generated Columns

Question

Does PostgreSQL support generated columns? Also know as virtual columns. I am not talking about IDENTITY columns.

I can’t find any information on this remarkable feature but I know that it is available on SQL Server, and in the latest versions of MariaDB & MySQL.

The feature is mentioned in the SQL:2003 standard, and there was some discussion on the PostgreSQL forums around 2006, but I can’t find anything substantial on the matter.

There is some discussion on SO, but it is quite old now, so it may well be out of date.

• Erwin Brandstetter: This related answer from 2012 on SO may be of help: stackoverflow.com/questions/11165450/… Still valid.
• Manngo: @ErwinBrandstetter Sorry I missed this comment. It’s a useful trick. Thanks.

Answer 1

Not sure if this is what you want, but attribute notation row.full_name and function notation full_name(row) are equivalent in postgresql.

That means you take a table

CREATE TABLE people (
 first_name text,
 last_name text
);

and a function:

CREATE FUNCTION full_name(people) RETURNS text AS $$
 SELECT 1ドル.first_name || ' ' || 1ドル.last_name;
$$ LANGUAGE SQL;

and call it like this:

select full_name from people

Is that what you need?

To speed up things you can create an expression index:

CREATE INDEX people_full_name_idx ON people
USING GIN (to_tsvector('english', full_name(people)));

Or store everything in a materialised view.

Example taken from here: http://bernardoamc.github.io/sql/2015/05/11/postgres-virtual-columns/

• fiatjaf: This is the correct answer. See, for example, how Postgrest refers to this behavior as "computed columns".
• Barguast: Typo, I think - the select should be of select people.full_name from people or select full_name(people) from people?
• Fabian Zeindl: No it works like that. The prefix in "select people.full_name from people" can be left out like in regular SQL.
• Fabian Zeindl: Could you change the accepted answer then?
• Jan Katins: I could only get to work the above example with select people.full_name from people; and select full_name(people) from people. The version without a prefix select full_name from people; gives an error in PostgreSQL 11: SQL Error [42703]: ERROR: column "full_name" does not exist

Answer 2

Yes: GENERATED ALWAYS AS ... STORED

Postgres 12 adds the functionality for generated columns, as mentioned in the SQL:2003 standard.

The value is generated at the time of an INSERT or UPDATE, then stored with the row like any other value.

A generated must be based on a base column of the same table, or on an immutable function.

Syntax is simple, a clause on CREATE TABLE:

GENERATED ALWAYS AS ( generation_expr ) STORED 

Example:

CREATE TABLE people (
 ...,
 height_cm NUMERIC,
 height_in NUMERIC GENERATED ALWAYS AS ( height_cm / 2.54 ) STORED
);

Features:

• Can be indexed.
• Part of the SQL standard.

Caveats:

• Based on columns of the same table (not related tables)
• Not allowed for partitioning (cannot be part of a partition key)
• Data always written to row, taking space in storage
  • Future feature might offer VIRTUAL for values calculated on-the-fly without storage
• Single-generation deep (use base column, not another generated column)
• There is no GENERATED BY DEFAULT (you cannot override value)
• Cannot access gen-col in BEFORE trigger (value not yet determined)
• Functions must be immutable

See:

• Generated columns in PostgreSQL 12 
by Kirk Roybal (2019年07月05日)
• manual: 5.3. Generated Columns

• Manngo: Thanks for that information. I see that version 12 is not yet fully released, but I am looking forward to it. I note that PostgreSQL uses the more standard syntax, but is otherwise the same as MSSQL. I found the SQL2003 specifications here: sigmodrecord.org/publications/sigmodRecord/0403/… . I have always said that SQL is a very slow moving standard, and DBMS implementations are even slow.

Answer 3

No, this is currently (as of Postgres 9.6) not supported.

The only workaround is to use a trigger or a view if it's a simple calculation that you do not need to index.

• Manngo: Rats. I suppose I could go for a materialised view if I need the performance. I have added a request for the feature, as it’s already available in the competition.
• user1822: No need for a MVIEW. A column with a trigger will also let you index the column's content
• Manngo: I have a philosophical issue with storing additional real columns which are basically a repeat of the other data. It de-normalises the table.
• user1822: Well, a computed column is exactly that: storing de-normalized data. How the computed column's value is generated doesn't matter. I don't see a conceptual difference between a "real" computed column and one that is generated through a trigger
• ypercubeᵀᴹ: Another workaround (for some cases) is to index an expression.

Answer 4

Depending on your use-case, you could achieve this sort of behavior by declaring a new column and populating it with a trigger on insert/update.

I would use the above answers if possible to avoid duplicating data that could be derived form what you already have, but it does do the trick and could be useful for computationally intensive derived fields that you want to compute once and save.

I considered this approach to deal with an issue where I sometimes only had 15 digits of an 18-digit key (the last 3 digits are just a checksum) but wanted to be able to enforce a foreign-key relationship.

PG docs on triggers: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/sql-createtrigger.html

W3 example: https://www.w3resource.com/PostgreSQL/postgresql-triggers.php